Municipal courses seeing increase in number of rounds

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Things are either going well at the City of Seattle golf courses or Andy Soden is a super spinmeister.

"I couldn't be happier," said the approachable Soden, 48, who was brought in from Pierce County last year as "Mr. Fix-it" for the problem-plagued municipal courses.

"It's been a group effort," he said, praising everyone from Premier Golf to the labor union, whose members handle maintenance on the courses.

Premier Golf is a private company that was hired to run pro shops and restaurants at the courses on a 17-month contract that ends in December. Among its contributions has been the introduction of a "frequent-player" program that rewards regular customers with discounts. More than 2,000 golfers have joined.

Soden was hired last winter when the city ousted Municipal Golf of Seattle, a nonprofit agency that had operated city courses since 1995. When MGS closed its books, among the debts was $2.1 million owed to the city. Soden said the courses hope to pay that back to the city by 2008.

Last year, only 190,000 rounds were played at the three city 18-hole courses (Jackson, Jefferson and West Seattle) and the par-3 courses at Jackson and Jefferson. (The city also owns Interbay but those totals are kept separately).

In 1992, rounds totaled 296,000 at the three sites.

One factor in last year's drop was that Jackson Park, traditionally the busiest of the three courses, at times had five holes out of play because of construction to build runoff-control ponds. The construction improved six holes on the course.

Soden based his budget on a projection of 225,000 rounds this year at the three city sites but is delighted that the courses are on-pace to do 240,000. He said revenues are up $500,000 this year compared with last year. Cost-cutting and good weather have helped, but Soden said, "When we have our best April in a decade, something has to be going on besides the weather."

Under Soden, $1 from each 18-hole round is set aside into a capital fund. The priority projects are upgrading Jefferson's driving range and completing Jackson's irrigation system.